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Perhaps we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief now that the election is over.

No matter who you voted for in the 1st Congressional District Special Election, the mudslinging was getting old. Tuesday, May 7 couldn’t come soon enough.

Mark Sanford, former governor of South Carolina and three time seat holder of the 1st Congressional District was victorious over Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a first time political contender.

Sanford defeated Colbert Busch 54 percent to 45 percent.

The Moultrie News took to the street to see how people voted, and why.

The district is heavily populated with hold-firm Republicans, but rumor had it that Sanford’s transgressions would have many jumping party lines.

Chris Cromer, though held firm in his support of Sanford.

“I am a gay Republican. I worry about our money and where we are going as far as the economy is concerned. We have to have a conservative in office to ensure fiscal responsibility,” he said.

As for Sanford’s transgressions, he said, “Clinton set the record. If we can excuse Clinton’s behavior with Monica Lewinsky, we can excuse Sanford. Clinton lied about the whole thing. Sanford didn’t.”

And worse, he said, “I think Lulu used her maiden name to power up her campaign. That’s the only thing she had going for her. She threw mud and Sanford never put her down. She is pro-union and just wasn’t qualified for the job,” said Cromer.

“People around the country think South Carolinians are stupid. What would have been stupid would have been to elect Lulu to office and allow her to pull in the unions and give away the very program we’ve worked so hard to obtain.”

Jimmy Sinkler of Mount Pleasant didn’t expect Sanford to win by as much of a margin as he did. “The polls said Busch and Sanford were close. I don’t know that I put too much faith in polls, though. But I am glad he won,” said Sinkler.

“I was tired of her campaign slinging mud. There’s nothing much more telling about someone when mud is all they’ve got,” he said.

“She never told us what and how she was going to do anything for South Carolina.”

And as far as Sanford’s admission to his well and overly publicized affair, Sinkler said he certainly didn’t approve of his indiscretions, but forgave Sanford.

Matthew Montgomery of Mount Pleasant felt like Sanford was a good congressman. “Sure he had a couple of faults, no doubt,” he said. “But who doesn’t?”

Montgomery said he was surprised Sanford’s win was by so much, considering all of the money the Democrats put into Busch’s campaign.

“I feel like those that listen to national news sources are not educated on the real facts. Sanford is going to bring in more jobs to our state and hopefully convince other congressmen in Washington to do the right thing for our nation,” he said.

Jimmy Huber did not vote due to time constraints but he was certain Sanford would be elected. “I didn’t think he would win by such a large margin because of the bad decisions he made. He was certainly at a disadvantage, but the voters ultimately made the right choice,” he said.

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